Hip Shots: ComicCon Baltimore

On August 28, we braved the downtown parking rates to check out the 11th annual Baltimore Comic-Con. Although I love comic books and culture, I'm not always great in big crowds, so I like to feel that I something to "do." This time, I decided to try my hand at some "hip shots," a kind of photography that I learned about from my friend Mary, who's always inspiring me. Her friend Jim has a wonderful weekly series of "hip shots" at Doodlemeister.com, and I sent him some of my shots, which you can see here.
I'm very pleased with how the shots came out. These aren't just crowd shots or off-hand shots, they're really shot without focus from the center of the body. I call my "belly-button shots" because that's how I tended to hold the camera. I got some funny looks from passers-by, but you can get away with pretty much anything as long as you look like you know what you're doing.
Check out the Hip Shots, and then take a look at these photos by Mania.com from the same day. The Captain America I caught browsing the tables is on there, as are the Green Arrow/Black Canary couple that were in line behind us. Nice folks! I wish I had gotten a shot of the GI-Joe characters...some of them honestly looked like life-sized dolls.
As must be obvious, we had a great time. We picked up some artist trading cards, which I matted and turned into art for the living room. I think my photos represent our time at Comic-Con fairly well; after all this time, "contemplating my belly button" has finally paid off!
Thanks Jim and Mary!

cheesemaker archetype?

Aunt Cookie just made me wonder why I was so suddenly drawn to this whole cheese-making thing: I do have diary farming in much of my ancestry. I remember stories of selling milk to the Gilman dairy and getting the resulting whey for free. Made fat pigs, apparently.
But now I'm thinking that maybe I'd be better at actual milking rather than the cheese-making. Or possibly cow-chasing. I'm not afraid of cows anymore!

it's not crazy, it's cultural

If you walked into our kitchen right now, you'd immediately notice — other than the pot that says "I have cheese in me / No whey!" and the bowls of draining cheese and the cheesecloth drying on the cupboard handles — a bag of water hanging over the sink.
For the flies.
The only places I've ever heard of that do this are a venta on the way to Sevilla and a restaurant in New Mexico that my folks went to. Both had bags of water hanging around "for the flies." Sounds weird, but it seems to work.
And I swear that there haven't been any flies around the cheese since I hung up that bag. Baby, you're so patient!